11:36 PM ET One hundred and forty-one nights after his positive coronavirus test triggered the suspension of the NBA season, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert scored the first points of the league’s restart, converting a drop-step move over former teammate Derrick Favors on the opening possession of Thursday night’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans

3:32 PM ET Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies liked where they stood when the NBA was shut down in March. Now with the NBA restarting, Morant says he thinks it’s unfair that the padding the Grizzlies built between themselves and the closest playoff contenders in the West could prove irrelevant. “But, you know, we

12:39 PM ET Eric WoodyardESPN Two important players will be absent from the Milwaukee Bucks‘ lineup when the team with the NBA’s best record hits the court this week for the long-awaited restart. Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer confirmed that Eric Bledsoe and Pat Connaughton will miss Friday’s game against the Boston Celtics as they continue

6:41 AM ET After 20 full weeks on hiatus, the 2019-20 NBA season is finally ready to restart. In case you’d forgotten, the Milwaukee Bucks lead the Eastern Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers are atop the West, the Memphis Grizzlies are clinging to the West’s 8-seed and the Toronto Raptors are still — more than

3:30 PM ET Steve Fainaru Close ESPN Senior Writer Winner, 2008 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting Four-time first-place winner in Associated Press Sports Editors competition Co-author of New York Times best-selling book, “League of Denial” Mark Fainaru-Wada Close ESPN Staff Writer Investigative reporter for ESPN’s Enterprise and Investigative Unit since 2007 Co-author of New York

1:04 PM ET The LA Clippers assembled one of the deepest rosters in the NBA, and coach Doc Rivers believes it is built for the bubble after having already been tested by the unpredictability of the NBA’s restart during the coronavirus pandemic. The Clippers were without five of their top 10 players last week after

6:30 AM ET The NBA restart begins Thursday night, as the Utah Jazz–New Orleans Pelicans and LA Clippers–Los Angeles Lakers showdowns welcome fans back to basketball after the league’s four-month hiatus. Will we be watching an all-Los Angeles Western Conference finals? Plenty of our experts think so. Meanwhile, the NBA-best Milwaukee Bucks don’t begin their

8:41 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN The NBA has decided that players who make their NBA debut in the bubble — a group most notably led by Denver Nuggets forward Bol Bol — will remain eligible for the Rookie of the Year award for the 2020-21 season, league sources told ESPN. Bol, a 7-foot-2 forward on

10:55 AM ET The NBA has placed Lou Williams in 10-day quarantine after the LA Clippers guard was investigated by the league for what he did while on an excused absence from the Orlando, Florida, campus. The league announced Williams’ quarantine on Sunday, three days after Williams was photographed by the rapper Jack Harlow at

4:52 PM ET PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Eagles have paid tribute to the late Kobe Bryant with a memorial wall at their practice facility. The mural, which was shared on Alshon Jeffery‘s Instagram account, has three images of Bryant: one from his playing days at nearby Lower Merion High School, one as a member of